SOU TH SHORE INSIDER: Weymouth audiology practice has been striving to make things loud and clear for 30 years

Thirty years ago, a small audiology practice in Weymouth’s Columbian Square first opened its doors. It had just two employees: Dr. David Citron III and his wife, Louise. Today, the South Shore Hearing Center has a full staff at its Stetson Medical Center location, and it does everything from hearing-aid fitting to testing for tinnitus.

Columbian Square first opened its doors. It had just two employees: Dr. David Citron III and his wife, Louise.

Today, the South Shore Hearing Center has a full staff – including five licensed audiologists – at its Stetson Medical Center location, and it does everything from hearing-aid fitting to testing for tinnitus.

Dr. Citron, the center’s director, says that although hearing technology has advanced greatly since he first started, the need for specialized attention to the South Shore’s hard of hearing has not.

What are some of the changes you’ve witnessed in hearing aid technology in the last decade?

Ten years ago, 80 percent of the hearing aids that we fit were in the ear. That has significantly changed. Now we have these very little guys that fit behind the ear. These new hearing aids are so flexible that we can fit about 70 percent of hearing-loss cases with them.

Some of them have smart technology now, where certain background noises – like traffic, fans and machines – can be reduced, to make listening more comfortable.

There’s also directionality, where hearing aids can pick up more from the front than from the back. Think of how important that is in somewhere like a restaurant: to the hearing aid, everything going on around it is just speech, and it can help to be able to pick up sound in front of a person, where they’re facing.

How is it that patients first come to you?

Sometimes people will wake up with a sudden hearing loss, but for the most part most hearing loss is gradual. It occurs slowly over a period of years.

Because of the gradual nature of hearing loss, patients often postpone doing something about it. We know from the research that the average number of years is about seven, from the point they detect until something is done.

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Do your patients have trouble adjusting? Do they have to deal with any stigmas?

Acceptance and coming to grips is a very important thing, regardless of age. For older adults, it’s a matter of pride. For children, it’s not wanting to feel different.

For children, it can be especially difficult. But there’s a lot more acceptance of deafness in educational and social environments than there used to be. With a wonderfully supportive environment, a lot of them come to the discovery that the hearing aids themselves are less conspicuous than the hearing loss.

Do you have any events planned to mark your 30th anniversary?

We’ll be doing a couple of things that will be going on this summer and into the fall.

We’re going to have a couple of open houses. One is a kind of ‘Patient Appreciation Day,’ for our patients who we’ve seen since the beginning. We’re also going to do something with the general community, and an event for the physicians we’ve worked with over the last 30 years.